OHSAA member schools approve transfer, NIL bylaw changes

Ohio High School Athletic Association member schools passed 11 of 12 proposed revisions to the OHSAA Constitution and Bylaws - many including clarifications on transfer rules and definitions - during the OHSAA’s annual referendum voting period, which ended May 15. All three issues regarding middle school athletes passed, while eight of nine high school issues passed. High school issue 2B failed by a 416 to 358 vote (29 abstained), which would have allowed students at a public school that does not sponsor a particular team sport to participate in that sport at another public school, provided that the schools were within 20 miles and the superintendents of both schools approved the arrangement.

Existing bylaws allow students at a private school to play a sport for the public school where they live if their private school doesn’t offer it. That happens regularly with the number of private schools, especially smaller ones, in the Cincinnati area. Aiken athletic director Paul Brownfield recently posted on X that the new bylaw could have helped his school and others in the Cincinnati Public Schools district field teams in sports such as baseball and softball.

"This could single-handedly save baseball and softball in the inner city. So many schools canceling seasons because numbers drop. This isn’t so teams can create 'super' teams but literally just to help schools field a team," he wrote.

Here are the full results of the voting. Some items that passed to note. Issue 1B added language to clarify that a school is considered to have “sponsored a sport” once its team participates in a regular-season contest (not a preseason event).